Kuro Vale

Kuro Vale is arranged as three dark timber volumes connected by a board-formed concrete spine. The house threads between mature birches rather than clearing them, allowing snow, bark and changing light to remain present from every room. Arrival is deliberately compressed before the plan opens into a tall glazed living room facing the mountain haze.

Five sleeping suites are distributed between two quieter wings, each with an engawa-like threshold and framed winter garden. The central volume contains the kitchen, dining room and a sunken salon around a suspended hearth. Below, a stone bathing room and cedar sauna look into a private snow court protected from the wind.

The exterior cedar was charred and brushed to reveal its grain; inside, pale oak and mineral plaster temper the darker shell. Roofs are shaped to manage heavy snowfall without producing oversized eaves. Kuro Vale is a retreat in the literal sense: quiet, warm and disciplined, with the landscape doing most of the visual work.